The present invention relates to an apparatus for determining a formulation for bodywork paints, in particular for the bodywork of motor vehicles, in order to determine automatically the formulation to use when bodywork repairs involve paint works.
In certain types of motor vehicles, the different bodywork colors are referenced and to each reference corresponds a formula given by the paint manufacturer. Nonetheless, whenever paint works are required after repairs to the bodywork, it is nearly always necessary to modify the formula so that the part of the bodywork which is re-painted does not differ from the rest of the bodywork. One reason is that the color of the bodywork has altered with time. Another reason is that shade differences are unavoidable between paints that are obtained by the same formula but with basic products of different production. In practice, the modification of the formula is done on a trial-and-error basis with tests made on sheet metal plates, sometimes without a completely satisfactory result being obtained.
Certainly, there are photospectrometers which automatically give good formulation for reproducing a color from a set of basic shades or bases, but this equipment is expensive. Moreover, it is not well suited for the application considered herein, especially when the color to be reproduced can only be analyzed by introducing into the apparatus a plate of the same color.